Due to advances in computing technology, businesses today are able to operate more efficiently when compared to substantially similar businesses only a few years ago. For example, internal networking enables employees of a company to communicate instantaneously by email, quickly transfer data files to disparate employees, manipulate data files, share data relevant to a project to reduce duplications in work product, etc. Furthermore, advancements in technology have enabled factory applications to become partially or completely automated. For instance, operations that once required workers to put themselves proximate to heavy machinery and other various hazardous conditions can now be completed at a safe distance therefrom.
Further, imperfections associated with human action have been minimized through employment of highly precise machines. Many of these factory devices supply data related to manufacturing to databases that are accessible by system/process/project managers on a factory floor. For instance, sensors and associated software can detect a number of instances that a particular machine has completed an operation given a defined amount of time. Further, data from sensors can be delivered to a processing unit relating to system alarms. Thus, a factory automation system can review collected data and automatically and/or semi-automatically schedule maintenance of a device, replacement of a device, and other various procedures that relate to automating a process.
While various advancements have been made with respect to automating an industrial process, utilization and design of controllers have been largely unchanged. In more detail, industrial controllers have been designed to efficiently undertake real-time control. For instance, conventional industrial controllers receive data from sensors and, based upon the received data, control an actuator, drive, or the like. These controllers recognize a source and/or destination of the data by way of a symbol and/or address associated with source and/or destination. More particularly, industrial controllers include communications ports and/or adaptors, and sensors, actuators, drives, and the like are communicatively coupled to such ports/adaptors. Thus, a controller can recognize device identity when data is received and further deliver control data to an appropriate device.
Unfortunately, traditional controllers employed within automation industrial environments have fallen behind recent technological advances to which the automation industry has maintained stride for stride. Conventional controllers are rigid and inflexible such that hardware and/or software associated therewith must be specifically tailored to a particular control engine. Moreover, in relation to industrial automation environments, controllers and control engines have a one-to-one ratio, wherein one control engine is executed per physical hardware platform (e.g., controller). With such one-to-one ratio, optimizing controllers to utilize full potential in a dynamic manner is virtually impossible. Moreover, in order to increase the efficiency in light of the constraints associated with conventional techniques described above, an increase in the amount of controllers is required which can be costly, inefficient, counter-productive, and meticulous. Furthermore, updating, manipulating, trouble-shooting, or testing code related to controllers can be a crucial and important task with little or no room for error such that downtime should be minimized for safety and/or productivity.